Quick power-outage and storm tips

Charge your cellphone.

Have cash on you.

Have all the prescription medication you need.

Check the batteries in your flashlight, lantern, smoke detector, or carbon monoxide detector, as applicable.

Fuel your car if you have one.

Have a stash of non-perishable food, if needed.

Move stuff up off the floor in areas of your house vulnerable to flooding.

Use candles cautiously, if at all.

Stay indoors if possible.

Call campus police ((413) 585-2490), local police ((413) 587-1100), or 911 in case of emergency.

Turn your refrigerator and freezer to their coldest settings before an anticipated power loss to extend the life of your food.

And perhaps most importantly: grind or brew some coffee now if you know you’ll want it later.

For more information, see the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, the National Hurricane Center, The Weather Channel, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, and the Smith website.

Coming up: Catching Your Breath and Boat House Tea

Two equally fabulous events are coming up Wednesday, Oct. 17 from 4:15-5:45.

For entering Adas exclusively, Catching Your Breath is a chance to take a time-out from your coursework and talk with other new Adas about your experiences at Smith so far — the good and the bad, the stressful and the unexpected. Sponsored by Counseling Services, this event meets at Mason Hall (Health Services). If you need childcare get in touch with our babysitters extraordinaire, Jane Ramsey (jcramsey@smith.edu) or Cora Lee Drew (cdrew@smith.edu).

Open to the entire class is a special outdoor fall tea at the boathouse with apple cider and apple cider donuts (!). This is a perfect get-together for a gorgeous fall day — and in the event of a rainy fall day, we’ll still be having delicious treats and camaraderie in Hopkins Lounge.

I hope that regardless of your schedule, you’re getting a chance to both catch your breath and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Latest issue of Well-Street Journal is out

New Ada Jan Morris publishes the newsletter of the Wellness Education Office, the Well-Street Journal. The WSJ features a monthly calendar of rejuvenating events around campus that students can attend to have fun and de-stress, along with short-and-sweet reflections on the benefits of slowing down.

Read the October issue here.

You can also check out Jan’s Wellness Words of Wisdom blog. (Sample post topic: “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another” – William James.)

Adas eat in style — and for half price! — at The Marina in Brattleboro, VT

Fellow Ada and restauranteur extraordinaire Jill Johnson has invited all Adas to enjoy 50% off their meals this school year at The Marina. Just show your OneCard!

The Marina is right on the West River (where it meets the Connecticut) and has a reputation for scrumptious eats in a gorgeous setting.

Thanks, Jill!!

Interested in being an Ada tour guide?

Hey fabulous Smithies!

Applications to be an Ada Gold Key tour guide will be available in the Office of Admissions starting on Monday, Sept. 17th and will be due on Tuesday, Sept. 25th.

Being a tour guide is a  a great way to show off what you love about Smith while boosting your public speaking and backwards-walking chops. Ada tour guides are exempt from the usual Gold Key requirement to host prospective students overnight, and generally give tours to prospective Adas one (paid!) Saturday afternoon a month.

For more information, get in touch with Gabrielle Martone (gmartone@smith.edu).

Hey, new students! Take the library quiz! Dean Erika Laquer explains how.

To help learn how to navigate Smith’s library resources, and refresh yourself on issues of academic integrity, you are required to take the Research Skills Quiz, no later than Friday, September 21st.  It will be administered through a Moodle site in which you are enrolled. The process of taking the quiz is useful. Should you not complete the quiz by then, I will have a “conversation” with you about doing so. The ultimate sanction would be a hold on your BannerWeb account, which would prevent you from registering for spring semester classes in November. The benefit of the quiz is that you will be better prepared to do your work at Smith.

Just log into Moodle and then into “Research Skills for Students – F12.”  Take the brief quiz – read the correct answers – and take again until you get 100%. (You may retake the quiz as many times as you like.)

For more information on the Smith College Information Literacy Program, please go to:

http://www.smith.edu/libraries/services/faculty/infolit/index.htm .

For comments or questions about Information Literacy or the quiz, please contact Bruce Sajdak directly at

bsajdak@email.smith.edu .

Ada Event!! Behind Bars: Voices – A One Act Play

In the Daily Hampshire Gazette News on 4/13/12:
Moana Rawlins, an Ada Comstock Scholar at Smith College in Northampton, blends her studies and her art. A sociology major with a concentration in community engagement and social justice, she is also a playwright: Her one-act work “Behind Bars: Voices” was performed at Smith this week. Rawlins says she uses the theater to bridge the distance between prison and the community, and to give a voice to those who have been incarcerated and struggled to rejoin society.

April 12, 2012
Neilson Library Browsing Room Smith College Northampton MA 7 PM
Behind Bars: Voices—A One Act Play By Moana Rawlins

This is a five scene one act play which examines the lives of women incarcerated in America. From courtroom to segregation cell we look at the ways women navigate this oppressive, restrictive, and punishing environment. Social conditions, women’s health, mandatory minimum drug policies, and the very real experience of being a mother and becoming a mother while incarcerated are represented in the scenes and the play concludes with a section of poetry. The playwright notes that the fifth scene of the play is intended to include current writing of women who are or once were imprisoned in America.

Ada Group on Linked-In

Adas,

Join the Ada group on Linked-in! click here

Job opening

Position involves being a housemate to someone struggling with serious mental illness.  You don’t have to be studying psychology or anything like it; you just have to be a kind, tolerant, empathic person with the emotional energy to remain a supportive, healthy role model and friend through trying times.  But there is no expectation that you be perfect either.  I have been very happy to be a part of the Windhorse community.  There’s a lot of training and ongoing mentoring and support, as well as various team and staff meetings.  And there is a great deal of flexibility in scheduling.  Right now, the position they are hiring for would most likely begin towards the end of March (WHICH MEANS INTERVIEWS ARE GOING ON NOW) with a move in date at the beginning of April, and they are looking for a WOMAN in her MID-THIRTIES AND UP (the client they are seeking a match for is a woman in her 40s).  If you (or know someone you know) are interested  in knowing more about the job, feel free to email me with questions or get in touch with Cynthia Johnson at 413-586-0207 ext. 118.

Pearls and Cashmere

For those Smithies not using facebook, this post is for you.

As you may have heard, the letter to the Editor printed in the Sophian this week has stirred up a bee’s nest here at our wonderfully diverse school. The response is poignant and beautifully presented in an event called pearls and cashmere that is not only on facebook but put up on a tumbl’r blog.

http://pearlsandcashmere.tumblr.com/

I love my school and I am very proud to be a Smithie!

Wendy

Moment by Deirdre Kinahan

Come and see fellow Adas Jaz Tupelo and Kellye Rowland in “Moment”, a play about how one Irish family deals with the lifelong effects of violence perpetrated by one of their own. There’s buckets of tea, loads of denial, and Irish brogues! Come and check it out!
February 24-25,  March 1-3 .

Directed by Ellen W. Kaplan. Smith College presents a workshop production of Deirdre Kinahan’s Moment. Nial murdered his little sister’s friend. He went to prison, went through rehab, and now he’s back. When he drops by his Ma’s house no one can cope with his arrival. The family lives in a fog of denial but they can’t escape the explosive “trauma in a teacup” that tears them apart. The play is lightning fast and frighteningly funny; it’s clear-eyed and compassionate, and – like Nial – the play pulls no punches. Moment, written by astonishing Irish playwright Deirdre Kinahan, was a major hit in London last year.

Order Tickets Online:

$8 Adults, $5 students/seniors, $3 Smith students – with Smith ID at Box Office only. Thursday, March 1 is dollar night for Smith students. Ask about our special tweet seats on Thurs March 1, where you’ll have the chance to tweet online reactions to the play. You’ll be “in the Moment” for sure. CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION!

http://www.smith.edu/smitharts

Purchase tickets by calling or emailing the Box Office: 413.585.ARTS (2787), boxoffice@smith.edu. The Box Office ticket window will be open from 1-4 p.m. Monday-Friday during the week of a show and beginning one hour before show time.

The Sophian looking for Webmaster

The Sophian is looking for a new webmaster to help us redesign our website (www.smithsophian.com) using College Publisher 5, our website’s host. We would like someone who will bring some creativity into making a user-friendly design that will hopefully be used for the next several years. Basic html would be helpful but isn’t required. If interested, please email sophian@smith.edu.

Events at Laurel Park

From the Laurel Park Association: Learning, Performance and Arts on the old camp ground.

For the first time in its hundred year history, Normal Hall (Laurel Park’s meetinghouse) is open for the winter! From January through April, LPA is offering programs for the cold months.

Singing Wednesdays! Every week, 7-9pm
1st & 3rd Weds: Kirtan with Shubalananda
2nd Weds: Taize singing with Liz Rogers
4th Weds: EarthSpirit sing & chant
5th Weds: in Feb. Sing Along using the Rise Up Singing! songbook (loaner copies available)

Dancing Sundays!
3rd Sun: Northampton Family Dance, 3-5pm.
more Sunday dancing is in the works, including contras, squares and hula hoops.

We also hope to schedule talks, readings, concerts and a coffee house.

If you want more information about the Laurel Park Association, you can ‘like’ us on Facebook, or go to our website,
www.laurelparkassociation.org

The Laurel Park Association (LPA)  offers programs to the general public in historic Laurel Park. Membership and all programs are open to everyone.

UNITE Gallery Reception, local artist, Molly Hardison

Molly Hardison, Selected Works
January 13th – February 8th at UNITE
Opening Friday January 13th, 6-9pm
202 Main St. Northampton MA

In conjunction with Northampton’s Arts Night Out, on Friday January 13th, UNITE will host a gallery reception for local artist, Molly Hardison from 6-9pm. Refreshments will be served. Molly’s work will be on display and for sale until February 8th.
Molly Hardison is a Northampton based artist whose most recent project is her own line of jewelry, Anther and Calamus. Using gold filled wire, precious and semi-precious stones, Ms. Hardison designs each piece of jewelry as a unique work of fanciful wonderment, combining glimmering jewels in unusual and playful ways. Anther and Calamus is Ms. Hardison’s way of bringing to life the magic she finds in underwater ecosystems, diving toward the unspoiled sparkles of potential treasures.

For Sale:Honda Fit 2007, 4D, hatchback

Honda Fit 2007, 4D, hatchback with 73,000 miles and 100,000 power train warranty from Honda, AC, CD player, automatic transmission, comes with 4 all season tires and 4 studded snows, airbags, power windows. If I weren’t moving abroad, I would definitely keep this car! A year ago I bought it for over $12,000 from Honda of Greenfield, MA where I have had it routinely serviced. My asking price is $8,900. For more info, email Hope at dancing4peace@gmail.com or call me at (802) 451-6622.

Have a Safe and Happy Break, see you next year!

Adas,

Spring 2012 will be my final semester at Smith. I am looking for a replacement before I graduate. It has been a pleasure being the Keeper of the Blog and I need someone to step up and take it over. If you are interested in keeping the communications alive and flowing for Adas, please send me an email at wessery@smith.edu.   (it looks good on a CV and a resume) I would like to find someone sooner than later so the transition is smooth.

Happy Break!

Wendy Essery AC’12

2nd Annual Ada StressBuster Lunch Tomorrow!!

Don’t miss it!

Wed, December 14, 12:00pm – 1:30pm
Neilson Browsing room

Emily Nagoski your Wellness Director will be hosting the Second Annual Ada Stressbuster Lunch, complete with stressbusting giveaways, free chair massages, and of course an excellent lunch!

Ada Kellye Rowland in “Hedda Gabler” 12/8-12/10

Hey Adas! Want a little reprieve from studying and paper writing? You know you do! come on out to see fellow Ada Kellye Rowland in Hedda Gabler this weekend! Thursday (that’s tonight!) is Smith student dollar night and Friday and Saturday’s shows Smith students get in for a mere three bucks anyway! Come see some late 19th century intrigue!

Hedda Gabler
Thursday Dec. 8th-Saturday Dec. 10th at 8:00pm
Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre

Temporary Job ~ Exam Workers Needed

from eDigest: Exam workers are needed for final exams December 19-22. Shifts are posted on JobX. Students may sign up for as many shifts as they are available for but signing up for a shift does not mean you will be hired or assigned for that shift. Schedules with center assignments will be sent via email about 2 weeks prior to exams.

Short-term Job Opportunity on Campus in December

Greetings!

I hope this finds you well.  I am writing to let you know that the Center for Community Collaboration in Wright Hall (Lower Level) will have a short-term job opportunity on campus in December.  Smith student workers will be need to help with a bulk mailing of brochures for the 2012 Summer Science and Engineering Program (www.smith.edu/ssep).  The tasks will include collating brochure inserts and stuffing envelopes.

If you think you would like to help out with this project near the end of the semester, please reply to ccc@smith.edu to let me know and I will put you on the list to receive additional details later this month.  The hours will be flexible, and the work will occur in one- to three-hour shifts over approximately five days (probably December 16, 19, 20, and 21), between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.  You do not need to be on work-study for this “spot job.”

Also, if you know of responsible classmates/housemates who might be interested in this opportunity, please don’t hesitate to let me know and/or forward this message to them.  Thank you in advance!

Best wishes,

Carla Cooke

**************************
Carla Manene Cooke, AC ’01
Administrative Coordinator
Center for Community Collaboration
Wright Hall
Smith College
Northampton, Massachusetts  01063
413.585.3060
ccc@smith.edu
www.smith.edu/ccc
www.smith.edu/ssep